Now Bruintjies makes his own mark on the SA sprint scene

Updated: June 9, 2015

By Mark Etheridge

London Olympics 200-metre finalist Anaso Jobodwana may have made his season-opening appearance in the 100m but it was sprint compatriot Henricho Bruintjies who ran off with the accolades at the Josef Odlozil Memorial meeting in Prague, Czech Republic on Monday night.Not only did the 22-year-old Tukkies athlete run a personal best of 10.06 seconds to win the 100m dash but it was also the fastest yet run by a South African at sea level internationally.
A helpful and legal 1.5m per second tailwind helped him the Hennie Kriel coached sprinter on his way to improving his best by 0.11sec.
Jobodwana clocked 10.13sec for second spot. His reaction: ‘10.13 for a season opener, I’ll take it! Shout out to Henricho for dropping that bomb 10.06 though.’
The duo were part of a sizeable group of South Africans in action.
Olympic and Commonwealth Games athlete LJ van Zyl had a solid 49.50sec showing for second behind Russia’s Denis Kudryavtsev (49.18) in the 400m hurdles and said afterwards: ‘I let the Russian guy get ahead by too much in the first 300m but finished very well.
National women’s 400m hurdles champion Wenda Nel continues to put together a fine run of form. She won the one-lap event in 55.20 from Russia’s Vera Rudakova (55.62).
Nel’s 54.37 in Beijing, China last month is still the second fastest in the world this year. She said after Monday night’s win: ‘It really wasn’t the smoothest of races but I’ll take the win… again I stumbled a bit on the last hurdle and the wind was a bit of a struggle in the back straight. But I’m happy with another low 55sec in the bag which will give me confidence going into Rabat for my next race.’
In the shorter 110m version of the hurdles, national champion Antonio Alkana won in 13.42 but with an illegal following wind of 3.2m/sec. ‘The wind was too strong but happy with the win,’ he said afterwards.
In the longer distance events Jerry Motsau was best South African finisher with a 3:44:44 fifth place behind Canada’s Charles Philibert-Thiboultot (3:39.78).
The only South African in field event action was Commonwealth Games team-member Orazio Cremona who was eighth in the shot put with an 18.94m best on the night. Cremona is struggling to get into the groove at this stage of the season but is man enough to admit it. ‘It all just fell apart and the body’s feeling really flat. That 18.94 is tough to handle but I don’t like making excuses. I have to take responsibility and just say I didn’t bring enough tonight.’